Blythe spirit Leaving the Cutler Majestic after the opening night of Opera Boston’s latest Offenbach, La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein , you could see the smiling faces of an audience that had had a good time.

Blythe spirit Leaving the Cutler Majestic after the opening night of Opera Boston’s latest Offenbach, La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein , you could see the smiling faces of an audience that had had a good time.

AS220 at 25 You might say it all began with a thumbs-down review of an art exhibit by Umberto Crenca. To Bert and his friends, it was just one more example of how they were excluded by the art establishment.

KahBang's growth helps boost Queen City Expanding its dosage of cultural shock therapy for central Maine, the KahBang festival, created as a single-day concert last year, is now a music, art, and film festival dominating the Bangor waterfront and downtown for nine days.

Rave on Although Don McLean sang of the abrupt death of Charles Hardin Holley as "the day the music died," it's more accurate to describe his soaring career as the days the music began.

Mighty Mahler Michael Tilson Thomas — music director of the San Francisco Symphony and former assistant, associate, and principal guest conductor of the BSO — was once considered a likely BSO music director.

Threeplay There's a lot of attention focused on this year's Brown/Trinity Playwrights Rep trio of summer plays now that the creative hatchery has had such a remarkable record.

PHOTOS: PRESIDENT OBAMA SPEAKS AT THE CYCLORAMA | May 23, 2011 Obama speaks at the Cyclorama inside Boston Center for The Arts on May 18, 2011. He was proceeded by speakers from The New England Steering Committee, Governor Deval Patrick, current Celtics player Ray Allen and former Celtics player Bill Russell.